My experience with sceptics is similar to Robert's. It is very difficult to get anyone to engage on much of the (significant) historical record and they seem to have very little original research of their own to point to. I have tried a number of times to engage in some kind of meaningful discussion on a number of sites, based on reading a piece of research jointly and discussing it, but have failed to find any takers. My motivation was purely to understand and learn.

On occasion people have referred to works they have read however they never seem to have read any of the material I have and haven't been inclined to engage even on what they say they have read.

The biggest surprise I found was the sheer volume of good-quality evidence available with very little effort.